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Letters
and Tabulations
THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE: BEAUTIFUL AND DANGEROUS
The beautiful literary traits for which English
is praised, such as a wealth of words, are
exactly the opposite of the needs for aviation
language. Conversation between pilots and
controllers needs to be terse and clear, but
English now has 38 dialects. Aviation needs
freedom from ambiguities, but English has
hundreds of them. International aviation
personnel need a language which is easily
learned, but English is so full of irregularities
that even its native speakers require 12 years of
schooling in it. Stability over the years is
needed in aviation, but there is neither an
Academy nor a set of prestated rules to exert
linguistic discipline over the evolution of
English.
In spite of these disadvantages, in 1951 English
was designated for international aviation use.
This was done without any supporting data or
experimentation. Now, 50 years later, we have
reason to believe that the language defects of
English are responsible for many crashes and near
crashes. Here are some examples:
---------------------------------
1976, Zagreb 176 deaths Language errors by the
controller.
1977, Tenerife 583 deaths Dutch pilot used Dutch
syntax w. English words.
1980, Tenerife 146 deaths Confusion: TURN LEFT
and TURNS LEFT
1981, Corsica 180 deaths Ambiguous language
1983, Madrid 169 deaths Faulty communication
procedure
1986, E. Berlin 82 deaths Confusion: LEFT and
RIGHT
1989, Azores 144 deaths Communication error with
tower
1989, Surinam 177 deaths Pilot ignored tower
instructions
1990, New York 73 deaths Wrong message about fuel
shortage
1993, China 16 deaths Pilot didnÕt understand
PULL UP.
1995, Colombia 159 deaths Controller could not
converse in English.
1996, India 349 deaths Hindi controller, Arab
pilot, Kazakh pilot
1999, Kosovo 24 deaths Italian pilot of UN flight
couldnÕt understand
computer generated warning.
1999, Chicago no deaths During takeoff, Korean
747 pilot skillfully avoided a 747 intruder onto
the runway. 380 lives were in danger.
2000, Taiwan 82 deaths Pilot misunderstood runway
5R instead of 5L
-----------------------------------------------------
Page 12 of The PilotÕs Radio Communication
Handbook suggests that 12 to 22% of general
aviation accidents are likely to be due to faulty
radio communications. This would average 17%. An
Italian source estimated at least 11% . Since
dead pilots cannot testify as to which word or
phrase confused or distracted them, there is no
way to establish a precise figure. But certainly
minimizing the burden of confusion on pilots due
to language will contribute to safer aviation.
1. AVIATION LANGUAGE CONFUSION
Now that there are 52 Open Skies agreements
between the U.S. and other countries, every major
airport in the world might receive airplanes from
anywhere in the world. This fact necessitates a
universal language for aviation. English has been
tried since 1951, but it is inherently too
confusing for all concerned.
Currently in the U.S. there is a crazy quilt of
336 phrases pilots must deal with, They are
itemized in The PilotÕs Reference to ATC
Procedures and Phraseology. It also lists 49
phrases which differ with the ICAO phrases used
in the rest of the world. The 80 page FAA
Pilot/Controller Glossary cites 44 differences in
definitions with respect to ICAO. The PilotÕs
Pocket Decoder lists more than 2,000
abbreviations and acronyms. These complexities
impose too great a need for memorization onto a
pilot, who often must make split-second
decisions.
This chaos of words can cause American pilots to
misunderstand American controllers. One result is
that they erroneously and dangerously move onto
active runways. They did so 429 times in the U.S.
last year. Eleven runway accidents dating back to
1972 have claimed 719 lives and destroyed 20
aircraft. Over the past 10 years 45 people have
died in runway accidents. (Aviation Week, v87,
No. 2; Pg. 36) The book, Fatal
Words:Communication Clashes and Aircraft Crashes
(U. of Chicago Press, 1994) deals primarily with
confusion between native speakers of English.
Captain John Cox, U.S. Airways said, ÒOurs is a
lexicon of abbreviations, acronyms, and jargon,
and just consider how many different versions of
English we have. Often our language can be
confusing - we have problems with oxymorons,
slang, homonyms (to, too, two) etc.Ó
Flying into and out of the U.S. also exposes
pilots to differences in measuring systems,
because all other countries use the metric
system. This adds numerical confusion about
altitudes, runway lengths, and fuel weight to the
problems of phraseology noted above. Secondary
annoyances about documents, such as the manner of
citing dates, and the unnecessary duality of U.S.
paper sizes are also noteworthy.
Native speakers of other languages have as much
difficulty using English as English-speakers
would have trying to use theirs. A complicating
factor is the existence of 38 dialects and
numerous varieties of English. Even those who
seem to speak English perfectly can make fatal
errors, as did the Dutch pilot in Tenerife in
1977. During an 8 year period, American pilots
reported 250 language dificulties elsewhere, and
American controllers reported 95 language
problems here with foreign pilots, according to
NBC. Russian pilots have almost landed on streets
in Seattle and Israel.
Misunderstanding equipment on board aircraft is
an important new type of language confusion, as
noted for crashes in 1993 and 1999, above. The
new digital readouts are more mentally demanding
than analog ones were. Computer generated English
is often misunderstood. Confusion between ROZO
and ROMEO non-directional beacons caused the
flight management computer to steer the 1995
Colombia flight into tragedy.
There is active resentment of the preferential
treatment of English in aviation by controllers
in Mexico and France.
2. LANGUAGE IMPROVEMENTS BY VOCABULARY
REORGANIZATION AND EDITING
If the existing patchwork of phrases were made
into a coherent entity, the 17% figure for
accidents due to miscommuncation might drop by 5%
or so. This improvement in safety can be achieved
by following the method of the International
Standards Organization for systemizing technical
vocabularies. See: Suonuuti, Heidi. Guide to
Terminology. The Finnish Centre for Technical
Terminology for NORDTERM 8, 1997. ISBN
952-9794-09-6.
The ISO method consists of carefully defining the
overall field of interest. Subdividing it
repeatedly produces cells small enough for
specific attention. Each of the concepts within
each cell is defined. The last step is assigning
words to the concepts. The resulting vocabulary
has neither gaps nor overlaps. Consultants from
the ISO are available for guidance if requested.
The production of this kind of vocabulary would
result in elimination of many confusing items,
and minimization of others. Non-metric units and
acronyms should be eliminated. Homophones,
homographs and homonyms should be minimized. One
of the 38 dialects of English should be chosen as
a model for worldwide use, and the other 37
discouraged.
3. SELECTION OF THE OPTIMUM LANGUAGE FOR AVIATION
Even after reorganizing the Englishvocabulary,
many of its defects will remain. They include the
following:
1. Alphabet Only 26 letters, insufficient for its
approximately 42 sounds. The number of vowels and
diphthongs varies according to dialect, from 18
to 24. Since it is the vowels which give clarity
to language, this erratic feature of English is a
threat to understanding. There are 253 ways to
spell the 42 sounds of English.
2. Accented syllable No regularity in its choice.
A dictionary often shows two alternate
possibilities.
3. Pluralization More than a dozen methods are
used in English to make plurals. The word
AIRCRAFT may be either singular or plural, so a
message AIRCRAFT APPROACHING is ambiguous because
it could mean one or more.
4. Homographs More than 1,400 words which are
spelled alike, but have different sounds. CLOSE
scrape and CLOSE the door, are examples.
5. Homophones More than 7,800 words are spelled
differently, but have the same sound. FOUR and
FOR, TOO, TO and TWO are examples. Confusion over
the last pair caused a crash in southeast Asia.
Consider: THE SONS RAISE MEAT / THE SUNÕS RAYS
MEET.
6. Homonyms More than 100,000 words have the same
spelling, and the same sound, but 2 or more
meanings. Words like SET and TURN have more than
a dozen meanings.
7. Affixes They have ambiguous meanings and
variable spellings. -NESS, -SHIP and -ITY all
carry the same idea of the quality of the root
word. If FLAMMABLE and INFLAMMABLE both mean
burnable, what does the prefix IN- mean?
8. Idioms More than 10,000 of these culture-based
expressions. To HIT THE ROAD doesnÕt mean to
attack the pavement. SHUT UP is not the opposite
of SHUT DOWN. An English speaker is apt to use
idioms, as did the Seattle controller who asked a
Russian pilot, ÒCan you make the runway?Ó
9. Irregular verbs More than 165 of them LIFT,
LIFTED, HAS LIFTED is regular. GO, WENT, HAS GONE
is irregular. Verbs must change for singular or
plural subjects. Is CRASHES a verb or a plural
noun?
10. Word order Subject, verb, object are
required, except for yes-no questions, which
force a change to verb, subject object.
11. Rules It has been estimated that 1000 rules
are necessary to formulate English, and that
there are 1,500 exceptions to these rules. It
would be difficult to find a more difficult
language for multinational pilots and controllers
to learn.
12. Guidance There is no Academy, as there is for
Esperanto, French, German and Spanish, to provide
linguistic discipline. English is a headless
giant.
These residual defects of English make it
necessary to find a more suitable language for
aviation. A scientific research organization,
such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
should be given a contract to determine the
relative merits for aviation of several candidate
languages. Through experiments the researchers
could determine which language most reliably
carried messages between aviation personnel of
various ethnic backgrounds.
Because the Esperanto language has none of the
above 12 defects of English, it seems clear that
Esperanto will win in the competition for
excellence. If so, it should then be installed as
the universal aviation language, after an orderly
transition
At this time the General Accounting Office of the
U.S. government is accumulating reference
information. In due course it will begin a formal
study of the problems of aviation language, and
move toward a solution.
Kent Jones
----------------------------------------------
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mr. Jones is a retired civil engineer who lives
in Chicago. His first contact with aviation was
during his service in the U.S. Navy. He was an
electronic technician for the Ground Controlled
Approach unit at BarberÕs Point Naval Air
Station, Oahu, Hawaii.
--------------------------------------------------
On 21 Nov. 2000 Mr. Dillingham answered my letter
to him, shown below. He is a high official in the
G.A.O., which oversees all parts of the U.S.
government. He indicates his readiness to
research the subject of aviation language at the
beginning of 2001.
------------------------------------
Mr. Jones: This is to acknowledge receipt of your
letter to me regarding
aviation language. We have been interested in
this issue at GAO for quite some
time. It is on our list of research that we
intend to do as time and resources
permit. I will be in touch with you after the
holidays to discuss this matter
in further detail. Thank you for your interest.
Gerald Dillingham
-----------------------------------------------------
THE BABEL-TOWER OF ENGLISH DIALECTS IN THE SKY
On the ground, the many dialects of English are
charming. They provide interesting accompaniments
to local scenes. What would Brooklyn be without
Brooklynese? Would Long Island really be itself
if not pronounced LONG-GI-LAND? Boston1s lost R1s
, as in POTTY for PARTY, give the city a
distinctive flavor. These and a few other
colorful varieties make up a dialect cluster
called Northern American English.
The five other American dialect clusters within
the American English group are Appalacian,
Southern, Western, African American Vernacular
English / Ebonics. and Native American Englishes.
In addition to our American group, around the
world there are seven other English dialect
groups. They are the British and Irish group, the
Australian and New Zealand group, East Asian
group, South Asian group, African group,
Caribbean group, and Canadian group. The world is
the proud possessor of 38 recognized dialects of
English, each with innumerable local varieties.
Joining this mosaic are those whose native
language is not English, but aspire to speak it.
English is but one of sixty four languages with
more than 10,000,000 speakers. Due to the
opulence of the English speaking world, many in
the 63 groups outside English try to speak
English to others and among themselves. Such
popularity makes us proud of the language of
Shakespeare. It also gives us 63 such hybrids as
FRANGLISH and SPANGLISH, which denote French and
Spanish combined with English. The funny English
attempted by the Japanese was the subject of a
program segment of 60-Minutes.
The result is that a tourist speaking one of the
38 dialects of English can, to some extent, be
understood in many places around the world. Of
course, it may be necessary to repeat one1s
words, to use many gestures, to sketch an idea on
paper, and to talk loudly and slowly to get an
idea across.
----------------------------------------
But in the sky, pilots can1t perform such
clarifying activities. A misunderstood message
from the ground-based air traffic controller,
particularly during landing, can cause a crash.
Yet pilots are often are exposed to messages in
forms of English which are strange to them.
English has been recommended for international
aviation use. Pilots cross many national and
linguistic borders during their flights. The
nature of their work requires extreme
concentration at times. The need to de-code a
dialect of English strange to him can distract a
pilot in the middle of a split-second action.
The air traffic controllers of the world have
reciprocal problems. They are exposed to many
pilots from many distant places. At any given
instant a controller may be in contact with 15
aircraft, hence 15 different accents of English.
American pilots and controllers have reported 345
dangerous language incidents, here and abroad,
during an 8 year period.
Misunderstandings of English are responsible for
many crashes and near crashes. This is evident
when a pilot on the ground erroneously wanders
onto a runway in active use. The controller told
the pilot one thing, but he understood something
else. In Chicago, on 1 April 2000, 380 people
almost died when one 747 started across a runway
as another was taking off. This sort of thing
happens in the U.S. more than 300 times a year.
Miscommunication is blamed for about 11% of the
crashes. Pilots using the wrong runway, like the
recent case in Tajwan, contribute to that number.
Others consist of the worst crash in aviation
history, an on-the-ground crash in Tenerife in
1977 when 583 died, the American Airlines crash
in 1995 in Colombia, and cases of inability to
understand computer-generated messages -- both in
China and in Kosovo.
The Federal Aviation Administration adds to the
confusion and danger in the dialect-filled Babel
Tower of the sky. Its glossary for pilots and
controllers contains 44 deviations from the terms
recommended by the world aviation organization,
the International Civil Aviation Organization.
The FAA also uses many entire phrases which are
different, such as TAXI BACK instead of BACK
TRACK. (See the list below as a sidebar.)
ICAO / FAA PHRASE COMPARISONS
Selected terms from the ICAO Manual of Telephony
- Second Edition.
ICAO FAA
AERODROME AIRPORT
AFFIRM AFFIRMATIVE
ALL STATIONS ATTENTION ALL AIRCRAFT
APRON RAMP
BACK TRACK TAXI BACK
CIRCUIT CLOSED TRAFFIC or PATTERN
CLEAR OF TRAFFIC TRAFFIC NO FACTOR
CONFIRM VERIFY
CONTINUE APPROACH CONTINUE
CONTINUE HEADING FLY PRESENT HEADING
CONTROL (AREA CONTROL CENTER) CENTER (ARTCC)
DECIMAL POINT
DELIVERY CLEARANCE DELIVERY
DESCEND WHEN READY DESCEND AT PILOT1S DISCRETION
FOR SEPARATION FOR SPACING
HOMER DF STATION
HOW DO YOU READ? HOW DO YOU HEAR ME?
IDENTIFIED RADAR CONTACT
INFORMATION RADIO (FSS)
JOIN DOWNWIND ENTER DOWNWIND
LINE UP AND HOLD TAXI INTO POSITION AND HOLD
MAINTAIN OWN SEPARATION AND V-M-C MAINTAIN V-F-R
MAKE ANOTHER CIRCUIT REMAIN IN CLOSED TRAFFIC
MAKE ONE ORBIT MAKE ONE THREE SIXTY
NO ATC SPEED RESTRICTIONS RESUME NORMAL SPEED
OBSERVED POSITION RADAR CONTACT
OMIT POSITION REPORTS RADAR CONTACT
PASSING LEAVING
PRECISION P-A-R
RADAR CONTROL TERMINATED RADAR SERVICE TERMINATED
RADAR IDENTIFICATION LOST RADAR CONTACT LOST
READ YOU FIVE LOUD AND CLEAR
REPORT SPEED SAY SPEED
REPORT YOUR HEARING AND LEVEL SAY HEADING AND
ALTITUDE
RESUME POSITION REPORTING RADAR SERVICE
TERMINATED
SQUAWK CHARLIE SQUAWK ALTITUDE
SQUAWK IDENT IDENT
STOP HOLD
STOP DESCENT AMEND ALTITUDE, MAINTAIN ...
STOP SQUAWK CHARLIE WRONG INDICATION
STOP ALTITUDE SQUAWK ALTITUDE DIFFERS BY ...
STRAIGHT AHEAD STRAIGHT OUT
TAKING OFF DEPARTING
TRACK COURSE
UNABLE TO COMPLY UNABLE
UNDER RADAR CONTROL RADAR CONTACT
UNKNOWN TRAFFIC TYPE AND ALTITUDE UNKNOWN
UNSERVICEABLE OUT OF SERVICE
VACATE EXIT
VECTORING FOR VECTOR FOR
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
from
The Pilot1s Reference to ATC Procedures and
Phraseology, 7th Edition. 7/99
-------------------------------
Kent Jones, 773-271-8673. 5048 N. Marine, D6,
Chicago 60640. kentjones9@aol.com
--------------------------------------------
Gerald Dillingham 9 November 2000
Director, Physical Infrastructure Issues
General Accounting Office
441 G Street, NW, Room 2T23
Washington, DC 20548
Subject: THE NEED FOR SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH TO
IMPROVE AVIATION LANGUAGE.
Dear Mr. Dillingham:
During the last two years or so the topic of
communication between pilots and controllers has
come to my attention. The more deeply I have
looked into it, the more disturbed I have become
at its lack of discipline. Today I saw another
British film whose language I could not
understand. If I had been a pilot talking to such
a controller I would surely have crashed.
Failure of aviation language can produce, and has
produced, death and destruction. As a civil
engineer I find the passive acceptance of the
present error-prone arrangement preposterous!
This letter brings you a summary of my
observations and recommendations. They have been
offered to the FAA and the NTSB, who have chosen
to reject them. This reaction appears to violate
the U.S. Code, Chapter 49 which established the
FAA. It requires that SAFETY be the top priority.
Not maintenance of the comfortable status quo,
not protection of American dominance of the
aviation world, just enhancing SAFETY.
Pilot-Controller language mistakes directly
threaten flight safety.
--------------------------------------------------
The general arrangement of my composition is as
follows:
1. Status of aviation language
2. Language problems which exist
3. Language causes for the problems
4. Scientific language research and development
5. Linguistic analysis of crashes
6. Recommendations
7. Appendix
-------------------------------------------------------------
It is my belief that a rationally planned system
of language can reduce accidents due to
miscommunication in the future. I hope that it
will be your good offices which bring this about.
Sincerely,
Kent Jones, 773-271-8673. e-mail
kentjones9@aol.com
5048 N. Marine Drive, D6
Chicago 60640
ATTACHED
Observations and Recommendations Concerning
Aviation Language
OBSERVATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS CONCERNING
AVIATION LANGUAGE
1. Status of Aviation language
In 1951, without any scientific justification,
the ICAO vaguely recommended the English language
for worldwide use. It failed to specify which
dialect of English was preferred. Aircraft then
were relatively few, short range, small and slow.
Today there are 189 members of the United Nations
system which supports the ICAO. Aircraft are
large, and growing larger. They travel longer
distances at higher speeds to more and more
foreign airports. The exposure to accidents is
ever greater as the skies become more crowded.
The hundreds of thousands of pilots and
controllers of the world intend that flying be
safe. They speak dozens of native languages. The
non-English speakers have sincerely tried to
learn some form of English. Their success has
been frustrated by its irregularities.
The recognized dialects of English have now
increased to 38, each with many varieties
produced by local accents. English lacks an
Academy to give it unity and discipline. It is
unlikely that the resulting confused usages can
produce reliable communication.
Americans seem to be less conscious about
language than others. This holds true at the
NTSB, where no linguist signs off to the
contribution language confusion may have made to
accidents or incidents which occur in aviation.
The NTSB plays ostrich to the influence of
miscomprehension.
The FAA believes that all pilots and controllers
need basic conversational ability, as well as
proficiency in air traffic control terms, in (the
unspecified dialects of) English. It is now
engaged in forcing the ICAO to require that all
foreign pilots and controllers pass a test in
English as a precondition to their employment.
2. Language problems which exist
Today about 65% of aviation accidents and
incidents are blamed on pilot error, many due to
English language failure. The Italian daily La
Repubblica estimated the figure at 11%. A CBS/Dan
Rather program discussed the problem. A TV
program on NBC, 18 January 2000 dealt with this
issue, finding 250 dangerous language events
overseas and 95 in the U.S. since 1988. (A video
tape of these programs is available upon
request.)
http://www.msnbc.com/news/358541.asp Search under
PLANE ENGLISH.
The book FATAL WORDS: Communication clashes and
Aircraft Crashes (Steven Cushing. 1994. U. of
Chicago Press) describes several accidents
traceable to ambiguities and other defects of
English. The homophones, TO and TWO accounted for
a crash, and there are 7,781 homophones in
English. There are also 1,400 homographs (CLOSE,
CLOSE) and more than 50,000 homonyms - words with
more than 1 meaning. English also contains more
than 10,000 idioms like HIT THE ROAD -- with a
hammer or fist?
OTHER MISUNDERSTANDINGS OF ENGLISH
1. RUNWAY INCURSIONS
Taxiing onto an active runway is very dangerous,
and no pilot would intentionally do this.
Therefore incursions are direct evidence of
misunderstandings of English. Nationwide there
are more than 300 runway incursions yearly,
indicating that even English-speaking pilots have
problems understanding English.
Concerning runway incursions, see
Ê
http://www.abcnews.go.com/onair/2020/2020_000324_runwaycrash_feature.html
Three recent examples -
8 Mar 2000ÊOSLO, NORWAYÊThree Scandinavian SAS
MD81/82 were involved in a runway near-miss chain
at Oslo-Gardermoen, Norway, when an MD82 from Bod¿
with 116 pax landed long, beyond last taxiway,
due to slippery runway. The aircraft was taxiing
back on the runway in fog and mist,Êwhen another
MD82 for Bergen, Norway with 150 pax was cleared
for take-off roll. The two MD80's rolled head-on,
and the departing flight took off 300 m before a
collission, passing the other plane at approx 150
ft. At the same time a third MD81 from Copenhagen
with 124 pax was approaching the same runway but
aborted descent on time.
Ê
1 Apr 2000 CHICAGO A Chinese 747 got in the way
of another 747 which was taking off. Only quick
thinking saved 380 lives.
20 Apr 2000 ÊTHESSALONIKI, GREECEÊCrossair MD83
from Thessaloniki, Greece to ZŸrich, Switzerland
with 80 pax was about to enter active runway in
front of an Alitalia plane taking off, when pilot
did not stop for a holding point line. Pilot was
suspended. No injuries.
2. UNAUTHORIZED TAKEOFFS AND LANDINGS
These pose a direct threat of a collision. But
what else can a foreign pilot do if he cannot
understand the controller? London experiences an
average of 1 unauthorized takeoff each year.
Concerning landings, Aeroflot planes have started
to land on a city street in Seattle and a highway
in Israel.
3. WRONG AIRPORTS AND RUNWAYS
What better example of miscommunication than not
knowing at which airport you are about to land?
This happened in Turkey in 1976 where 155 died,
in Mexico, and in Ecuador in 1999. Landing on the
wrong runway risks a collision. Singapore
Airlines used 5R instead of 5L.
4. IGNORED TOWER INSTRUCTIONS
This led to a crash in Surinam in 1989, where 177
died. A pilot can1t obey orders he doesn1t
understand.
5. INABILITY TO UNDERSTAND COMPUTER-GENERATED
ENGLISH
The ground proximity alarm on the MD-80 worked
perfectly. But the last words of the Chinese
pilot on the cockpit voice recorder were, What
does pull up mean1 ? Recently 24 died in a crash
of a U.N. plane in Kosovo. Moments before, the
Italian pilot radioed that he couldn't understand
some computer words.
6. CONFUSION AMONG THREE DIALECTS
There are 38 distinct dialects of English, and
innumerable mixtures with local accents. Under a
Hindi controller, a Kazakh airplane collided in
midair with an Arabic one. Three of the 349
deaths were Americans. Another trio was involved
in New York in 1999 - Icelandair, Air France, and
an American controller. A collision was narrowly
missed.
7. BAD FORMULATION OF ENGLISH
The 1995 American Airlines crash in Colombia
might have been avoided had the Spanish-speaking
controller been able to express himself in
English, according to his testimony. The New York
crash in 1990 for the lack of fuel was the direct
consequence of incorrect wording by the
Spanish-speaking copilot.
On the American side, controllers often use
everyday English instead of aviation English. A
Seattle controller asked a Russian pilot, 3Can
you make the runway?2 (Build it?) The word HOLD
has a different meaning in avciation, and this
caused a 1981 crash in California.
8. BLURRED COMPREHENSION OF PROCEDURES
The 1998 Korean Airlines crash in Guam was partly
due to a misunderstanding about ILS availability.
If you cannot understand instruction manuals, you
cannot follow them.
9. TRANSLATORS IN THE COCKPIT WITH THE PILOTS
It is reported that this is a relatively frequent
occurrence on foreign airlines. Immediate,
reflexive obedience to a controller command by
the pilot becomes impossible when a message must
be hurriedly translated (correctly?) and relayed.
Recently a UAL pilot, approaching Mexico City,
found it necessary to call a passenger to the
cockpit to help understand the controller.
3. Language causes of the problems
Pilot errors are blamed for 65% of aviation
accidents. But what caused the mistakes? Why did
they blunder onto a runway where they shouldn1t
be? Why did they fly at the wrong altitude? Why
did they turn right when they should have turned
left? Obviously they were confused.
Here are some possible causes for confusion in
English messages, particularly by foreigners. It
is noteworthy that the Flight Safety Foundation
assigns a higher risk factor to flights whose
pilot or controller is not a native speaker of
English.
1. Linguistic causes
a. The differing sounds of the 38 dialects.
b. The spelling problem in trying to read an
emergency manual
c. Erratic accented syllable
d. Irregular verbs
e. Plurals made in more than 10 ways
f. Etc.
2. Numerical causes
a. Non-metric units (feet, nautical miles) force
mental conversion of heights, runway lengths,
etc.)
3. Procedural causes
a. FAA Glossary differs in 44 items from ICAO
usage.
b. FAA phraseology differs also. As follows:
Selected terms from the ICAO Manual of Telephony
- Second Edition.
ICAO FAA
AERODROME AIRPORT
AFFIRM AFFIRMATIVE
ALL STATIONS ATTENTION ALL AIRCRAFT
APRON RAMP
BACK TRACK TAXI BACK
CIRCUIT CLOSED TRAFFIC or PATTERN
CLEAR OF TRAFFIC TRAFFIC NO FACTOR
CONFIRM VERIFY
CONTINUE APPROACH CONTINUE
CONTINUE HEADING FLY PRESENT HEADING
CONTROL (AREA CONTROL CENTER) CENTER (ARTCC)
DECIMAL POINT
DELIVERY CLEARANCE DELIVERY
DESCEND WHEN READY DESCEND AT PILOT'S DISCRETION
FOR SEPARATION FOR SPACING
HOMER DF STATION
HOW DO YOU READ? HOW DO YOU HEAR ME?
IDENTIFIED RADAR CONTACT
INFORMATION RADIO (FSS)
JOIN DOWNWIND ENTER DOWNWIND
LINE UP AND HOLD TAXI INTO POSITION AND HOLD
MAINTAIN OWN SEPARATION AND V-M-C / MAINTAIN
V-F-R
MAKE ANOTHER CIRCUIT REMAIN IN CLOSED TRAFFIC
MAKE ONE ORBIT MAKE ONE THREE SIXTY
NO ATC SPEED RESTRICTIONS RESUME NORMAL SPEED
OBSERVED POSITION RADAR CONTACT
OMIT POSITION REPORTS RADAR CONTACT
PASSING LEAVING
PRECISION P-A-R
RADAR CONTROL TERMINATED RADAR SERVICE TERMINATED
RADAR IDENTIFICATION LOST RADAR CONTACT LOST
READ YOU FIVE LOUD AND CLEAR
REPORT SPEED SAY SPEED
REPORT YOUR HEARING AND LEVEL SAY HEADING AND
ALTITUDE
RESUME POSITION REPORTING RADAR SERVICE
TERMINATED
SQUAWK CHARLIE SQUAWK ALTITUDE
SQUAWK IDENT IDENT
STOP HOLD
STOP DESCENT AMEND ALTITUDE, MAINTAIN ...
STOP SQUAWK CHARLIE WRONG INDICATION
STOP ALTITUDE SQUAWK ALTITUDE DIFFERS BY ...
STRAIGHT AHEAD STRAIGHT OUT
TAKING OFF DEPARTING
TRACK COURSE
UNABLE TO COMPLY UNABLE
UNDER RADAR CONTROL RADAR CONTACT
UNKNOWN TRAFFIC TYPE AND ALTITUDE UNKNOWN
UNSERVICEABLE OUT OF SERVICE
VACATE EXIT
VECTORING FOR VECTOR FOR
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from The Pilot1s Reference to ATC Procedures and
Phraseology, 7th Edition. 7/99
4. Scientific research and development
The missing element in the puzzle of aviation
language is scientific research. It was improper
in 1951 to make a fuzzy recommendation to use
English for international aviation without
experiments and analysis to validate the choice.
Thus we have been operating with a language of
unproved communicative merit for 49 years.
The problems of aviation language could be
minimized or eliminated with a modest program of
scientific research. It might resemble the
research done by the organization Consumers1
Union, which evaluates the relative merits of
such things as automobiles and insurance
policies.
The project might be done in three phases. The
first would establish which of the 38 dialects of
English communicates best between native English
speakers. How much understanding is lost when a
pilot from Boston talks with a controller in
Australia, compared to a fellow Bostonian? Some
dialects have 15 vowels and diphthongs, others
have 24. Which transmits messages most
effectively? Until we have quantified answers to
these questions it is impossible to formulate a
sensible language policy for the 3English2 usage
of the present day.
The second phase should focus on improvement for
the future. It would evaluate the international
communication efficacy of the best dialect of
English in comparison with a few other languages.
It might start with the three having the
discipline of language Academies (Esperanto,
French, Spanish) and continue with any others
thought to have merit.
The ethnic groups to be tested with each
candidate language would represent dissimilar
families, such as Russian, Chinese, Arabic and
Hindi. The accuracy of message reception of group
members who know each candidate language could be
experimentally measured. The report would
establish objectively which language is the most
reliable communicator for worldwide aviation for
the next century.
The final phase would optimize the application of
the language found to be best. Its vocabulary
would be developed with the systematic principles
of Terminology Committee 37 of the International
Standards Organization in Vienna, Austria. The
present vocabulary is a mess.
5. Linguistic analysis of crashes
Inattention to linguistic factors by the NTSB
causes the loss of data needed for improvements
in language use. A history of the language facts
surrounding aviation crashes and incidents can
enable future analysts to perceive various
commonalities. Such a rich data collection can
provide a solid base for understanding some of
the seemingly irrational behaviors of pilots.
Because the NTSB doesn1t find a chunk of broken
English in the debris field it concludes that
language was not a factor in crashes. It is easy
to say that pilot error caused a crash. But why
the error? The meaning we take out of a sentence
depends upon how the information was packaged and
upon our language backgrounds when we hear or see
it. These are linguistic phenomena. The NTSB
shirks its duty by sweeping the language problem
under its rug.
Thus all the linguistic data surrounding an
incident should receive analysis by a
professional linguist. Yet the NTSB doesn1t have
a professional linguist on its staff. It cannot
now competently appraise what if any influence
language confusion had in accidents and
incidents. The needed rigorous investigation of
this problem area is now neglected by the
National Transportation Safety Board. The result
is continued ignorance about the nature and scope
of language confusion in aviation.
The worst accident in aviation history was due to
language confusion. It occurred in 1977 in the
Canary Islands. The Dutch KLM pilot started down
the runway and crashed into a 747 full of people.
He had misunderstood an information statement
from the tower to be permission to take off. Then
he thought he advised the tower that he was in
the process of taking off. His actual wording of
English, 3at takeoff2 signified to the tower that
he was obediently sitting in position to start
flight when given permission. But the AT in the
Dutch language carries the same meaning as -ING
in English. So he thought that he told the tower
that he was takING off. But the tower thought he
was motionless and didn1t warn the other plane.
There were 583 fiery deaths as a result.
A report by Grayson and Billings studied 6,527
reports submitted by pilots and controllers to
ASRS. Ambiguous phraseology accounted for 529,
phonetic similarity for 71, and garbled
phraseology for 171. Thus explicit items of
significance to a linguist were 10.5 % of the
reason for these reports of danger.
Runway incursions cry for linguistic analysis.
The pilot misunderstands instructions, then
wrongly wanders onto a runway in active use. This
happens 320 times a year in the U.S. What is the
linguistic basis for these dangerous errors? The
data should receive professional linguistic
scrutiny, but it doesn1t
Even language misunderstanding by the ground crew
can cause trouble. If unable to understand or
read, they might load dangerous materials or
might disrupt weight and balance of the aircraft.
A professional linguist1s statement must be a
formal part of each accident report. A linguistic
recommendation about dialects is urgently needed.
The NTSB cannot perform its statutory duty to
provide guidance to the FAA so long as it avoids
language problems.
6. Recommendations
A. That the FAA initiate a comprehensive,
scientific language research and development
project, as described above.
B. That the NTSB be required to include a
professional linguistic appraisal as part of the
report of each accident
7. Appendix
A. List of 38 Dialects
ENGLISH AROUND THE WORLD, from 1999 Encarta World
English Dictionary.
38 dialects in 8 general groups
British and Irish English
English English
Scottish English
Scots
Welsh English
Irish English
Australian and New Zealand English
Australian English
Aboriginal English
Maori English
New Zealand English
East Asian English
Philippines English
Hawaiian English
Singapore English
Hong Kong English
Malaysian English
South Asian English
Sri Lankan English
Bangladeshi English
Pakistani English
Indian English
African English
Nigerian English
Ghanaian English
Sierra Leone English
East African Englishes
South African English
Caribbean English
Jamaican English
Patwa
Bahamian
Barbadian / Bajan
Trinidadian
Canadian English
Inuit English
Quebec English
Canadian Standard English
Atlantic Provinces English
American English
Northern
Appalacian English
Southern
Western
African American Vernacular English / Ebonics
Native American Englishes
B. A nonsense poem, to illustrate the craziness
of English. The FAA wants all pilots and
controllers to have the ability to converse about
everyday topics, according to one of its
publications. This poem shows many booby traps
which prevent the learning of English by
foreigners. Even lifelong English speakers have
difficulty reading this aloud.
ENGLISH IS TOUGH STUFF
Dearest creature in creation,
Study English pronunciation.
I will teach you in my verse
Sounds like corpse, corps, horse and worse.
I will keep you, Suzy, busy,
Make your head wish heat grow dizzy.
Tear in eye, your dress will tear.
So shall I! Oh hear my prayer.
Just compare heart, beard, and heard,
Dies and diet, lord and word,
Sword and sward, retain and Britain.
(Mind the latter, how it's written.)
Now I surely will not plague you
With such words as plaque and ague.
But be careful how you speak.
Say break and steak, but bleak and streak;
Cloven, oven, how and low,
Script, receipt, show, poem , and toe.
Hear me say, devoid of trickery,
Daughter, laughter, and Terpsichore,
Typhoid, measles, topsails, aisles,
Exiles, similes, and reviles;
Scholar, vicar, and cigar.
Solar, mica war, and far,
One, anemone, Balmoral,
Kitchen, lichen, laundry, laurel;
Gertrude, German, wind and mind.
Billet does not rhyme with ballet,
Bouquet, wallet, mallet, chalet.
Blood and flood are not like food,
Nor is mould like should and would.
Viscous, viscount, load and broad,
Toward, to forward, to reward.
And your pronunciation's OK
When you correctly say croquet,
Rounded, wounded, grieve and sieve,
Friend and fiend, alive and live.
Ivy, privy, famous; clamour
And enamour rhyme with hammer.
River, fiver, tomb, bomb, comb,
Doll and roll and some and home.
Stranger does not rhyme with anger,
Nor does devour with clangour.
Souls but foul, haunt but aunt,
Font, front, wont want, grand, and grant,
Shoes, goes, does. Now first say finger,
And then singer, ginger, linger,
Real, zeal, mauve, gauze, gouge and gauge,
Marriage, foliage, mirage, and age.
Inquiry does not rhyme with very,
Nor does fury sound like bury.
Dost, lost, post and doth, cloth, loth.
Job, nob, bosom, transom, oath.
Though the differences seem little,
We say actual but victual.
Refer does not rhyme with deafer.
Foeffer does, and zephyr, heifer.
Mint, pint, senate and sedate;
Dull, bull, and George ate late.
Scenic, Arabic, Pacific,
Science, conscience, scientific.
Liberty, library, heave and heaven,
Rachel, ache, moustache, eleven.
We say hallowed, but allowed,
People, leopard, towed but vowed.
Mark the differences, moreover,
Between mover, cover, clover,
Leeches, breeches, wise, precise,
Chalice, but police and lice;
Camel, constable, unstable,
Principle, disciple, label.
Petal, panel, and canal,
Wait, surprise, plait, promise, pal.
Worm and storm, chaise, chaos, chair,
Senator, spectator, mayor.
Sea, idea, Korea, area,
Psalm, Marie, but malaria.
Youth, south, southern, cleanse and clean,
Doctrine, turpentine, marine.
Compare alien with Italian,
Dandelion with battalion.
Sally with ally, yea, ye,
Eye, I, ay, aye, whey and key,
Say aver, but ever, fever,
Neither, leisure, skein, deceiver.
Heron, granary, canary,
Crevice and device and aerie.
Face, but preface, not efface,
Phlegm, phlegmatic, ass, glass, bass,
Large, but target, gin, give, verging,
Ought, out, joust and scour, scourging.
Ear, but earn and wear and tear
Do not rhyme with here but there.
Seven is right, but so is even,
Hyphen, roughen, nephew Steven,
Monkey, donkey, Turk and jerk,
Ask, grasp, wasp, and cork and work.
Pronunciation -- think of Psyche!
Is a paling stout and spiky?
Won1t it make you lose your wits,
Writing groats and saying grits?
It1s a dark abyss or tunnel:
Strewn with stones, stowed solace, gunwale,
Islington and Isle of Wight,
Housewife, verdict and indict.
Finally, which rhymes with enough:
Though , through, plough, dough, or cough ?
Hiccough has the sound of cup.
My advice is to give up!
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